Bleak House, Charles Dickens

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Michael Adesite                                           English Literature

Question: How does Dickens create a sense of atmosphere in the opening of Bleak House?

Dickens create a sense of atmosphere in the opening ‘Bleak House’, which sets the scene for the rest of the novel. He uses strong descriptive language to enhance this atmosphere, so the reader can envisage the scene that he is trying to describe, although never going overboard in his description, he still manages to create an immutable, powerful image that stays in the readers mind almost allowing the reader to sympathies with the feelings that he is trying to put across.

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As soon as the reader sets eyes on the chapter, they are greeted with the simple word of ‘London’. Although this doesn’t amount to much at first, at second glance it very powerful as it sets the scene for the novel, let alone the opening. It seems as if Dickens wants the reader to brace themselves for the explosion of descriptive language he uses to describe the atmosphere, hence it sounds almost like a statement as if to say that, that is his opinion of London at the time and he wants the reader to respect that.

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